Epileptic Seizure: What Is It And How Should You React?

Believe it or not, 3% of the population will suffer from at least one epileptic seizure during their lifetime. It is therefore a fairly common condition. In fact, it is the second most common neurological cause of people going to the emergency room.

Today we will explain what an epileptic seizure is and how a person can be kept safe until the seizure ends on its own.

What is an epileptic seizure?

By definition, an epileptic seizure is a set of different symptoms that can range from symptoms that can go unnoticed to manifestations that people often call seizures: G generalized body contractions with loss of consciousness. Oddly enough, these symptoms are due to a group of neurons in the brain deciding to activate simultaneously and perform their activity too much and abnormally.

Overall, there are two types of epileptic seizures:

• Acute symptomatic seizures (ASS). An injury outside or inside the brain causes this. Brain trauma, cerebrovascular disease, brain infection, fever, intoxication or an imbalance in the sodium and sugar levels in the blood can cause this type of seizure.
• Unprovoked seizures, often known as epilepsy. Six out of ten people who have seizures suffer from epilepsy without an identifiable cause.

According to the International League Against Epilepsy (ILAE ), epilepsy is a brain disease that is characterized by a lasting predisposition to generate epileptic seizures and by its neurobiological, cognitive, psychological and social consequences. In other words, any of us can have an epileptic seizure, but not everyone will develop epilepsy.

Different types of epileptic seizures: Signs and symptoms

First of all, it is necessary to know that there are two main types of epileptic seizures : generalized seizures and partial seizures.

Generalized seizures

Unfortunately, abnormal activity occurs throughout the brain, which often leads to loss of consciousness. There are several reasons for this:

• Absence attacks. This usually occurs in children and adolescents. The individual loses consciousness for a few seconds, without any other clinical manifestation. During this interval, they usually do not respond and are disconnected from the circumstances. They do not faint or have muscle contractions. They just stop doing what they did and stare straight ahead.

• Myoclonic seizures. This type of generalized seizure does not cause loss of consciousness. It causes muscle twitching in the extremities, usually in both hands.
• Tonic seizures. They cause a sudden tonic contraction. The body becomes stiff as a plank and it also leads to loss of consciousness.
• Tonic-clonic seizures. This is what we usually associate with an “epileptic seizure”. First, there is a tonic contraction phase followed by clonic muscle twitching. It is always accompanied by loss of consciousness. Often the patient will bite the lateral part of the tongue and the sphincter will relax. It usually lasts between one and two minutes, followed by a period of several minutes of confusion.

Focal seizures

In this case, the abnormal activity occurs only in a certain group of neurons. It causes several symptoms, depending on the affected region, such as visual and olfactory hallucinations and twitching in one hand.

You should do this in case of an epileptic seizure

If you are witnessing an epileptic seizure, you should do the following:

• Carefully lay the person on the ground or in an area where there are no hard or sharp objects around. You should support your head on something smooth and flat.

• Then turn the person to one side to improve breathing.
• Loosen objects that hang around the neck as they can be dangerous during movements.
• Do not try to hold them down or prevent the movements, you should just make sure that there is nothing in the environment that can harm them.
• Stay close to the person until the crisis is over.

Most epileptic seizures are not an emergency and end on their own. It is therefore important to only make sure that the person can not be injured by external objects during the attack. However, it is often recommended that they report the seizure to the doctor afterwards.

You should not do this in an epileptic seizure

Beyond what you should do at this point, it is important to know what precautions you need to take to avoid making mistakes that could complicate the patient’s development. First and foremost, you should not try CPR.

You should also not hold the person during an epileptic seizure, stick objects in your mouth or try to grab their tongue. It is best that the crisis takes place with the person in a stable side position.

Finally, you should not offer the person food or fluids immediately after the crisis, at least until you have confirmed that the affected person is awake.